Two Iranian converted Christians “Amin Naderi” and “Hadi Asgari” were sentenced to prison terms in Evin. These two converted Christians have been sentenced to combined 25 years prison terms.

As reported by “Mohabat News”, prison terms of these two individuals were announced by the judge of the 26th branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran on 3rd of July 2017. “Hadi Askari” was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and “Amin Afshar Naderi” was sentenced to 10 years prison terms plus an additional 5 years for blasphemy, totaling 15 years altogether.

As mentioned by Judge Ahmadzadeh, these two converted Christians were accused of “violating the national security by hosting House Churches and promoting Christianity”. The court session of these two defendants was held on 21st of June 2017. Also it was announced that these two converted Christians are not allowed to leave the country for two years once their prison terms are over.

Presently these two Christians are in section four of Evin prison. Iranian Police officers attacked a garden in Firuzkuh, an area near Tehran, on 26th of August in 2016 and 17 Christian citizens were arrested. Among them ” Ramil Bat Timers”, ” Amin Afshar Naderi”, ” Hadi Askari”,” Mohammad Dehnavi” and “Amir Saman Dashti” were transferred to Evin prison.

The families of these Christians were not even informed of their status for a long time.

After almost six months, three individuals were released on a bail, while “Amin Afshar Naderi” and “Hadi Askari” were still held in prison.

Amin was on hunger strike since January 2017 while he was kept in solitary confinement for three months and his physical health was in danger.

Hence their charges was announced on April 5th, 2017 after 8 months interrogation, notwithstanding that their charges were announced verbally, and the court had promised that their written charges would be submitted to their lawyers.

The charges of these two Christians were announced by the Islamic revolution court while three Christians from Azerbaijan and a converted Christian from Iran were sentenced to forty years prison terms altogether by the same court on 12th of June, 2017.

The Center for Human Rights in Iran along with 18 other human rights organizations wrote a statement in December 2016 and requested the international community to stop these violations against Christian citizens and converted Christians in Iran. Officials of Islamic Republic of Iran have intensified their pressures on converted Christians coming from Islamic background since summer of 2016. / Farsi